


breathe or sleep

by jennshiki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A Kiss, Angst, Confession, I wrote this before season 2, M/M, Pain, Sad, Someone will die, what might've happened after the wormhole maybe in a parallel universe lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 00:46:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9410180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennshiki/pseuds/jennshiki
Summary: Lance heard himself gasp as he was suddenly swept under by a wave. He was floating in an ocean, an ocean of exhaustion, and a huge wave had slammed into him. The force of the water pulling him under the surface was unbelievable. Lance struggled to breathe, and at first he fought to stay awake. He flailed his arms frantically, trying to get back up to the surface. Once he sunk to the bottom of the ocean, he’d be asleep. Nobody would know where he was or how to save him. If he fell asleep, he’d never wake up. That was something he knew for certain.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I started this before season 2 was out,, so I decided to finish it and post it because it's about what happened after they went into the wormhole, and since season 2 has the actual canon outcome i might as well post this now
> 
> fyi the ocean thing is a metaphor, i'm not sure if it's confusing or not sorry /D

Lance felt lonely.

The air was empty. A void. There was no sound, no light, just nothing. There was nothing to touch; it was like he was suspended in midair, or frozen. Frozen was a good word because whatever it was that he actually was touching, was cold. Everything was cold.

Lance felt something shivering under the weight of the icy air. Him. He was the one shaking.

He wanted to sleep. His eyes were closed, but he was still painfully conscious, at least to some degree. The cold wrapping around him had been there so long, it had almost become comfortable. Like a tight blanket. If the cold was really a tight blanket, then he must be in a bed. And beds are for sleeping. He wanted to sleep. 

But a quiet voice at the back of his head wouldn’t let him. It was saying something, screaming at him. Lance couldn’t hear. He didn’t want to hear. He wanted it to stop. He wanted it to quiet down so he could drift away from everything, and rest in peace, floating among stars, at the surface of the ocean, on the edges of white clouds, anywhere. Anywhere but here.

Lance felt lonely.

He was vaguely aware his erratic breathing, chest heaving like the rumbling of a storm. There was a dull ache in his head, like someone had knocked on it one too many times. The circumstances probably should’ve concerned Lance, but thinking too hard about anything hurt.

Lance wasn’t aware of the full extent of his situation until he heard a scream. It wasn’t the one at the back of his head, it was louder, closer. Real. Lance flinched, and the sudden movement grounded him, yanking him back down to reality and out of his stupor. 

The nothing was suddenly replaced with _everything_ , all in one instant. In the span of a second, Lance became aware of the hard terrain under his body, and heard things he didn’t know were there. The trickling sound of water droplets, the wheezing of the wind. The cold was so much stronger, wriggling through the fabric of his clothes, digging into every inch of his skin. It was as if his senses were waking up, like he was emerging from a cocoon.

There was another scream, and it seemed louder. The pain in his head turned from an ache into a harsh sting. Like something sharp was lodged in his head. Lance groaned, shifting his weight, trying to move. A mistake. The pain in his head spiked, and despite the fact that his eyes were still closed, all he saw was white. For a few seconds, he couldn’t think. He couldn’t do anything. The pain overpowered and engulfed him. He couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel anything other than the overwhelming agony that spread like an infection, couldn’t see anything but the blinding white, couldn’t breathe. 

When his vision faded back into black, Lance felt salty tears spilling through his eyelids, trickling down the side of his face and plopping onto his armor. 

He felt a pair of warm hands on his face. The screaming was gone. Lance would have leaned into the hands if he could, but he wouldn’t risk trying to move again. Then the hands disappeared and with them the warmth. Lance felt so much colder than before, the icy air quickly sweeping back in to replace the heat.

What was happening? Lance warily sifted through his memories, trying not to think too hard. Then he remembered Coran’s shout.

“The integrity of the wormhole has been compromised! We have no control over where we’re headed!”

The panic that accompanied the memory leaked out and Lance frantically pushed the thought away. He didn’t need additional pain of any sort.

“Lance!” shouted a voice. The shout sounded really distant, as if someone was calling to him from miles away.

Hm, but wasn’t that his name? What a stupid name… It was getting harder to think, and everything was swirling together into one muddled mess. Sleep was calling for him, and the screaming in his head seemed to be gone; or at least, he couldn’t hear it anymore. 

“Lance…” came the voice again. It was weaker, sounding desperate even.

The hands returned. He felt a finger gently brushing the tears off his eyes. 

“We’re going to get you fixed up right away, you’re going to be fine.” The voice cracked as it spoke. It was like the person was more trying to console themselves than Lance.

Lance heard himself gasp as he was suddenly swept under by a wave. He was floating in an ocean, an ocean of exhaustion, and a huge wave had slammed into him. The force of the water pulling him under the surface was unbelievable. Lance struggled to breathe, and at first he fought to stay awake. He flailed his arms frantically, trying to get back up to the surface. Once he sunk to the bottom of the ocean, he’d be asleep. Nobody would know where he was or how to save him. If he fell asleep, he’d never wake up. That was something he knew for certain. 

But Lance was getting so much more tired....maybe it was better just to sleep? It was so much easier too….

And then Lance stopped trying, letting the ocean current pull him along. As he floated down deeper and deeper, a sense of tranquility fell over him, and any want to go back disappeared. Why did he want to return so bad to a place where he wasn’t needed? They could find a better blue paladin to replace him. It was going to be okay. He was going to go somewhere better. Somewhere where he could be happier. Somewhere where living was easy, because he wouldn’t be living at all. He’d be resting in peace. 

He could feel his consciousness begin to dissipate. He was nearing the bottom. He was going to die. And what was so wrong with that?

Then, he felt something on his lips. More specifically, another pair of lips. Someone was kissing him. Shock filled every inch of his body, pushing out any sense of peace and suddenly he was yanked up to the surface. He exploded out of the water, gasping for breath, shuddering from the force at which he was pulled up. 

His eyes snapped open. Who was it? Who was kissing him? But now that he was out of the water and back to reality, the pain was also back at full force. There was no way he could be at peace when his body felt like it was being torn apart. But he remembered what he had opened his eyes to do, and with effort, he forced his eyes to look up, up into another set of eyes, at the face that had just kissed him. His eyes widened. Keith. 

The first thing he felt was panic. _What? Why? No…why him, why would he…_

But then Lance saw the concern and sadness in the eyes staring into his own. He felt his heart doing something weird. 

“Lance!” gasped Keith, leaning forward. 

Lance would’ve backed away but he was already lying on the ground so there wasn’t much use. 

“Why?” whispered Lance.

He would’ve said more but his throat hurt and it took to much oxygen to speak.

The moment Lance spoke, he felt himself falling back into the water, at a much quicker pace. And no amount of flailing was bringing him back up. His vision started to blur, and he could feel that his mind wasn’t working properly anymore. It was shutting down. 

He didn’t catch the answer to the question that he had asked. Oh well. 

“Lance!” screamed Keith, but the sound was muffled by the water. 

He felt tears hitting his face, but he couldn’t see anything anymore.

“No, Lance, please……stay with me. We need you here.”

Sorry.

“I need you here.”

Sorry?

“I….I love you.”

Again, shock registered into what was left of Lance’s mind, but there wasn’t enough left of him to bring back up and out of the water. He was slipping away.

“So please, stay with me.”

But it was too late. Lance was tired. He wanted to sleep. He heard a scream, but by now he was much too far down in the ocean to hear anything clearly. 

“Please…”

Lance felt more tears of his own starting to fall.

“Lance!”

But it was too late.

His body hit the sand. And then there was nothing.


End file.
